Gold Tumbles Most in 2014, US Mint Bullion Coin Sales Jump

Gold and silver prices plummeted on Monday while sales surged for U.S. Mint bullion coins

Gold tumbled out of gate to start the new trading week Monday with investors booking profits on recent gains and demand for safe-havens fell as equities soared.

Gold for August delivery dropped $30.70, or 2.3%, to end at $1,306.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"A strong stock market and some stability in the EU" are pressuring gold, Peter Thomas, a senior vice president at Zaner Group LLC in Chicago, said in a telephone interview according to Bloomberg News. "A lot of people were looking at Portugal as a domino effect, and as we saw, O’Connor prevailed and it didn’t have a significant impact."

Gold traded from an intraday low of $1,302.20 to a high of $1,340.90. Gold prices last week surged 1.3%. They ended Thursday near a four-month high on concerns over the health of Portugal’s top publicly traded bank. Losses on Monday were also attributed to technical selling.

"Gold has been under pressure all day as equities have regained some of last week’s losses," Reuters news quoted one precious metals trader. "There were some stops triggered after U.S. gold futures breached $1,328, the price at which gold was trading at before the big move on Thursday."

Silver for September delivery plunged 55 cents, or 2.6%, to $20.91 an ounce, trading between $20.90 and $21.53. Silver prices jumped last week by 1.5%.

In PGM futures on Monday:

October platinum lost $20.80, or 1.4%, to $1,493 an ounce, ranging from $1,492 to $1,516.30.

Palladium for September delivery dipped $3.30, or 0.4%, to $872 an ounce, trading between $867.15 and $874.85.

Last week, platinum inched up 0.4% and palladium gained 1.6%.

London Fix Precious Metals

Earlier fixed London precious metals mostly retreated. In contrasting the London bullion fix prices from Friday PM to Monday PM:

Gold declined $29, or 2.2%, to $1,306 an ounce,

Silver slipped 29 cents, or 1.3%, to $21.13 an ounce,

Platinum fell $12, or 0.8%, to $1,494 an ounce, and

Palladium added $1, or 0.1%, to $868 an ounce

Precious metals in London last week turned up 1.2% for gold, 1.4% for silver, 0.2% for platinum and 0.1% for palladium.

US Mint Bullion Sales in July

United States Mint bullion coin sales jumped as authorized distributors paid less than a week to get new inventory. Overall, gold coin sales advanced by 8,000 ounces and silver coin sales rose by 400,000 ounces. Each of these totals is higher than those from last week.

Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of bullion coins sold on Monday, last week, last month, the month to date, and the year to date.